


Recollect (Remedial Disaffect redub)

by feldman



Category: Farscape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-30
Updated: 2011-04-30
Packaged: 2017-10-18 20:13:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feldman/pseuds/feldman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missions could be ranked by duty and honor, and this one was all duty and no honor. Retelling of "Recollection" by Apathy for the RemixRedux 2005.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recollect (Remedial Disaffect redub)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Recollection](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/3168) by Apathy. 



Tauvo knew the locations and he knew the mission brief verbatim. Their team objective was twofold, to exact the quadrennial taxation on personnel and by doing so reinforce authority over the sector. He also knew it was scutwork, a weeken tour of the border colonies to cull their populations for a few squads worth of recruits.

He wasn't even flying the Marauder, despite having just earned that rating.

Missions could be ranked by duty and honor, and this one was all duty and no honor. The sooner they met their quotas the sooner he would be back on the flight training roster where he belonged. His Lieutenant knew it was scutwork, and he ran a quick and efficient crew in order to have done with it as soon as possible. This was the last colony on the mission list, an autonomous commune in the middle of nowhere run on some backwards non-tech philosophy.

Tauvo wondered what kind of young the recruiter techs would be looking for--husky brutes strapped to plows, maybe, good for the carrier loading docks and adding a little animal strength to the gene pool. Maybe he'd ask We'tan later how she could look at these larval flocks of civilian brats and pick out the ones with talent to serve. He smiled at her across the belly of the ship and she licked her lip. Talking wasn't the first thing he'd like to do once the scutwork was finished.

He was calculating vectors to estimate their arrival back at the carrier when the Marauder broke cloud cover. Tauvo broke into a sweat.

The landmass beneath them resolved into a shape so familiar he could still feel an old model of it in his hand, feel the molded mountains under the pads of his fingers, picture the sun setting behind those same shapes on the horizon and signaling his bedtime.

He was suddenly aware of his armor, corners digging into the flesh around his joints. He leaned back into the seat, stretching his ribs under the breastplate.

He couldn't help looking from the screen to his Lieutenant, but the man continued watching the ground rise up to meet them. Tauvo could read his brother like no one else, sense his superior's mood and direct his own team accordingly. This was another reason their mission was running ahead of schedule. He looked at his Lieutenant and saw the same bearing as always, hands clasped behind his back, stance broad and solid as if his frame were made of armalloy instead of ordinary bone.

Tauvo felt his pulse slow, reassured that this was still an ordinary mission, just like all the planets before. Let the gene techs assess the resources, assist in tagging and recording the new personnel, then head back to the carrier and a clean new mission.

We'tan had already screened the girls and selected ten candidates. Their Lieutenant had sent a squad out to secure permission from the families. Tauvo hadn't said anything to his brother, but they were each aware of the increased danger of this mission compared to the previous locations.

It was clear in each face Tauvo saw, each sullen brat We'tan inspected. They recognized their ex-patriots, and they shivered and sneered.

His brother took the necessary precautions. He quartered them in the commune's warehouse, squeezed between stacks of sacked grain, the ceiling one large low-hanging rack piled with roots and bundles of dried greens. The threat did not need to be stated, it was implicit in the weaponry they carried and the cold dry wind that blew through the valley. Any resistance and the food supply would go up in flames.

We'tan sorted through the boys with a bored efficiency, choosing nine easily. Her duties completed, she looked over the stored food, pleasantly surprised at the variety and amount. She remarked at how robust and quick the children were, saying it was little wonder the quota for this commune went up every tax period.

She expressed surprise at how so much could be done with so little, these fine recruits coming from such poor frozen soil. She called it a testament to the Sebacean species, and she wondered aloud how much these children would accomplish now that they were to be given real care, now that they had earned access to the best resources and training in existence. She told Tauvo that she thought they would serve well.

Tauvo nodded and let her talk, knowing that the eavesdropping children were already beginning their training. He watched their hands and their faces, and his rifle butt was quick and precise when necessary.

It was easy to mock the wail from a distance, but the woman herself was harder to handle. She strode up from the valley, desperate relatives trailing behind, unable to catch or restrain her, to pull her back into the thick-walled hut she'd torn out of in her rage.

Tauvo ordered her to halt, but she kept on coming.

The resemblance was what staid his trigger finger. Her brown eyes caught his own like looking into a mirror, like looking at his brother. She closed the distance between them, her brow furrowed in such a familiar way it felt like she was squeezing his heart from twenty paces away. She opened her mouth, lips chapped and ragged from the wind but drawing breath easily, filling herself with rage and aiming it at Tauvo.

For the first time since the cycle after he left this place, fear spiked through his gut. The ache in his chest began to pound at his temples, the adrenaline allowing his hand to finally move, compelling him to squeeze her back. The weapon fired, burning into his mind the sight of those brown eyes erupting in wet sparks.

Dead aim, even under pressure. The finest training in existence. She would have spoken if he hadn't stopped her.

Tauvo nearly holstered his pistol, but caught himself, raising it instead to the villagers who were rushing toward the body. It was a body, nothing more. Hadn't even been armed.

Just like this had been a test, not scutwork.

Tauvo's eyes scanned the crowd, watching his brother in his peripheral vision. Bialar issued orders in his clipped emphatic style, loading the recruits and crew onto the Marauder just like every other planet in the last weeken, securing their cargo while the rearguard secured their withdrawal.

His Lieutenant stood at the top of the hatch ramp, covering the villagers with a wide-scatter pulse rifle, while Tauvo ran up, dropped into the flight seat and helped the navigator get the ship up and off this forsaken rock with all due speed.

His Lieutenant came to stand behind him, peering through the view screen at the retreating frozen ground with brown eyes gone just as hard and cold. This time Tauvo compressed his own heart, willing it to stop pounding, to be strong and sure like his brother behind him.

He flexed the muscles of his forearms and pushed his wrists against the console, eradicating the shake as he keyed in the coordinates for home.


End file.
